Preview: Orlando Pride hosts North Carolina Courage

The North Carolina Courage may have a firm lead in the NWSL standings, but the Orlando Pride think they’re beatable.

Both teams are scheduled to take on each other Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. at Orlando City Stadium in a match that will feature the only unbeaten team in the league in the Courage and the Pride who are riding a five-game unbeaten streak.

“They are unbeaten this so far, which is incredible for them. Just having them come here, we want to keep our unbeaten streak that we have,” Orlando forward Alex Morgan said on Monday. “We want to extend that and hand them their first loss. I think that they’re definitely beatable, but we need to be on our game plan and execute well.”

Wednesday will be Orlando’s first home game since coming back from a three-game road trip that saw the Pride collect seven out of nine points. But despite Orlando’s recent run of unbeaten games, coach Tom Sermanni thinks his side has not reached the level

“It’s great that we had this run, we’re winning games, but we still don’t feel like we’re playing at our capacity just yet,” said Sermanni. “I feel where we have done well particular away from home, we look much solid defensively.”

A collective effort last year resulted into Orlando giving North Carolina its first loss of the season in 2017, and the Pride are expected to draw the same plan only with a bit more aggressiveness in the final third, said Sermanni.

“We defended a little bit deeper in the first half against North Carolina, tried to stop them,” said Sermanni. “They’re very potent and quick up front. It’s equally important to do that Wednesday night. We have a high caliber team, so we have to be a bit aggressive on how we play the game from an attacking perspective.”

Goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris (left knee soreness) is listed as questionable for Wednesday’s match, but trained with the team on Tuesday. Brazilian Monica is also listed as questionable due to right knee soreness.